Chapter 8: Just a Few Home-Cooked Dishes — And They Nearly Overdosed on Them?
The next day.
Su Ning rose at the first pale light of dawn and headed into town to buy some daily necessities.
When he returned home, he went straight back to cultivating.
He had grown thoroughly absorbed in the practice — captivated by the feeling of his body growing stronger with each session.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, or if he had truly made remarkable progress, but he walked over ten kilometers without feeling particularly tired — barely even winded.
He remembered all too well how painful that same walk from town had been on the day he first came home.
His body had felt completely out of his control back then, especially his heart, which seemed to be saying: Keep this up and I'll just stop on my own.
That day, he had staggered home in fits and starts, exhausted by the time he finally arrived.
Now, his physical condition had improved considerably.
Not that he could claim to be above average — but at the very least, he was approaching the level of an ordinary person.
That alone was cause for joy.
* * *
The sun dipped toward the west.
Crimson clouds stained half the sky.
Golden light spilled down from the west, washing over the mountain grasses and trees, the endless fields of crops stretching across the land, and the stream winding through the gully below. The entire world was bathed in a breathtaking scene.
Su Ning sat cross-legged with his back to the setting sun.
As the sun sank lower, his shadow stretched longer and longer behind him — like a supreme sovereign turning his back on all living things.
He was still and serene.
Motionless.
Like a statue carved from stone.
Whoosh…
Gradually, Su Ning's chest rose and fell as he let out a long, deep breath.
His eyes opened at the same moment.
In the instant between closing and opening, a faint gleam flickered within his pupils.
His eyes were clearer than before.
After only two days of cultivation, the whites of his eyes and his pupils had grown sharper and more defined — the whites as clean as a freshly peeled egg, the pupils as dark as obsidian.
He glanced at the sky.
Su Ning gave a satisfied nod. "Today's Circulation Cycle took a full hour less than yesterday's."
"It seems that as my body grows stronger and the cycles accumulate, each full Circulation Cycle will take less and less time."
He stood up.
Crack, crack, crack…
A rapid series of popping sounds rang out from every joint in his body, like beans being tossed in a hot wok.
Crisp and satisfying.
Crack, crack…
He rolled his neck.
Pop, pop, pop…
Then rolled his shoulders.
Whoosh…
He threw a punch — and it actually cut through the air with an audible whoosh.
Stronger again!
His strength had increased substantially.
"Hehe…"
"My physical condition has improved again. A few more days of this… and I'll probably be on par with an ordinary person." Su Ning felt genuinely pleased.
Ordinary people: ……
Buddy, do you have to keep comparing yourself to us?
Nothing matters more than good health.
Nothing brings more joy than a body growing stronger.
The changes in his body were the source of Su Ning's greatest happiness.
"Immortal Senior, your cultivation speed is truly astonishing. You are a one-in-ten-thousand cultivation genius in the cultivation world!" Abyss Devil Lord exclaimed with genuine admiration.
Su Ning: ……
His face flushed slightly, a little embarrassed.
He didn't take the compliment to heart, of course.
He knew his own talent well enough — not terrible, but nothing special either.
Otherwise, why would he be unable to cultivate any of the Nine Great Saints' Cultivation Techniques?
Su Ning assumed Abyss Devil Lord was simply flattering him.
"It's not that impressive," he said, waving a hand dismissively.
"I know I still have a long road ahead of me."
"Immortal Senior is too modest," said Abyss Devil Lord.
In truth, the other miniature cultivators also felt that Su Ning's cultivation talent was absurdly extraordinary.
In just two short days, the oppressive aura emanating from Su Ning's body had grown nearly suffocating to them.
Progress like that…
They genuinely believed he was a genius — not empty flattery at all.
"Oh, right — it's dinnertime. I bought some meat today, so let's have a proper meal tonight." Su Ning said cheerfully.
He went to the kitchen and cooked a pot of white rice, stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, stir-fried pork with green peppers, and a napa cabbage and tofu soup.
All simple home-cooked dishes.
In high spirits, he carried the food out to the vegetable garden, and together with the little cultivators, they watched the sun set in the west as they ate.
The little cultivators ate very little.
Nearly everything ended up in Su Ning's stomach.
Since embarking on the path of cultivation, he consumed far more food than before.
That was a good thing.
"Still not enough energy. I should start adding more high-protein, nourishing foods — beef, maybe?" Su Ning mused.
Quality food would help him grow stronger more efficiently.
"I… there's too much energy in this food… I… I think I… can't hold on much longer!" Just as Su Ning was lamenting that the food before him wasn't nourishing enough, the little cultivators were turning beet red, one by one.
Their entire bodies flushed hot.
"This food… it's even more nourishing than before!"
"Are you all alright?" Su Ning watched anxiously as the Nine Great Saints rolled around in their dishes after eating, looking utterly miserable.
A single plate of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, one simple dish of pork with green peppers — and they were nearly bursting from it?
Surely that couldn't be right!
"I'm no doctor — I don't know how to treat anyone."
"Immortal Senior need not worry. We simply ate too much out of greed. Once we digest it, we'll be fine… and this is actually a Fortuitous Encounter. If we can successfully digest it, our strength will grow as well," said Kunlun Immortal Maiden.
They were so tiny — not even as long as a finger.
About the size of insects.
The little cultivators were inwardly shaken.
Nothing in the Immortal Realm was normal.
A single Chaos Devil Spider had nearly wiped them all out — yet an immortal here could crush a Chaos Devil Spider with a single finger, and that was someone who hadn't even cultivated yet. The sheer power was staggering.
It made their scalps tingle just thinking about it. And the food here was equally bizarre.
Any random dish turned out to be a powerful restorative medicine.
It could rapidly restore one's vitality and increase one's cultivation.
Eat too much, and you might very well explode from the overflow of energy.
"Immortal Senior eats like this every day — no wonder his physical constitution is so terrifying. With nothing but raw physical strength, he can crush everything in his path."
"The Immortal Realm truly holds many things we have yet to understand…"
"What kind of world is this, really?"
They simply could not fathom what sort of beings could live in a world like this.
The nine little cultivators struggled to their feet and sat cross-legged on the ground, circulating their power to digest what they had consumed.
One by one, they began to glow.
Like a row of exquisite little light bulbs — when they were still, they looked like works of art.
Each one solemn and dignified, yet with a distinct expression.
Looked at closely, they truly resembled the immortals and deities one might see in a film.
Just… very, very small.
Su Ning didn't dare leave.
He stayed close, keeping watch over them.
The little cultivators were deep in meditation and could not attend to anything else. If a cat, a dog, or any other predator happened upon them, they would surely perish.
It was only about ten minutes.
The little cultivators finally finished digesting the energy within them.
Nameless Sword Immortal was the first to stir.
"How are you feeling? Are you alright?" Su Ning's booming voice thundered down from above, reverberating across the heavens.
Su Ning had spoken at a perfectly normal volume, but every time his voice reached their ears, it was amplified countless times over — like a great bell ringing out. That was simply because their bodies were so incredibly small.
Their capacity to receive sound was far weaker than that of ordinary creatures.
Nameless Sword Immortal rose to his feet.
He turned toward Su Ning and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for your concern, Immortal Senior. I am well."
"Not only have I digested the energy within me — my cultivation realm has grown somewhat stronger as well."
It was plain to see that Nameless Sword Immortal was both excited and deeply grateful.
"In the lower realm, our cultivation had already reached a standstill. I never imagined that upon arriving in the Immortal Realm, it would truly begin to stir again. Thank you, Immortal Senior, for bestowing upon us such immortal treasures." His gratitude was entirely sincere.
"I am deeply grateful." Nameless Sword Immortal bowed once more.
Su Ning scratched his head and smiled, feeling a little sheepish.
They were just ordinary home-cooked dishes — nothing special about them at all.
Yet these cultivators from the land of little people treated them as miraculous elixirs.
These little cultivators really did have rather modest aspirations.
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